4 generations 50 million years.
Fossilstone™ is a unique freshwater marble quarried from the ancient 50 million year-old tropical Eocene age lakebeds of America’s western Wyoming.
THE STONE.
PREPARATION.
FOSSIL BUTTE HISTORY.
CONTACT.
4 generations 50 million years.
Fossilstone™ is a unique freshwater marble quarried from the ancient 50 million year-old tropical Eocene age lakebeds of America’s western Wyoming.
THE STONE.
PREPARATION.
FOSSIL BUTTE HISTORY.
CONTACT.
fossil butte
Geology of Fossil Lake and the Eocene Habitat 54 Million Years Ago Western Wyoming, U.S.A.
Large freshwater lakes often occupied these vast basins for many millions of years. The ancestral Wind River Mountains, Uinta Mountains, and Bear River Range rose above the basins to dizzying heights. Soft sedimentary stone layers wrapped up and over the mountain cores we now see, causing the shapes and sizes of the ancestral ranges to be much different. Seasonal torrential rains poured across Wyoming’s Eocene age lush green landscape.
Grasses and many of the plants we take for granted had yet to evolve so there was little overall vegetation to hold the soil and sedimentary layers in place. Large quantities of the soft sedimentary material eroded down the slopes of the ancestral mountains and into the lake basins.
From two generations of work and research in this world class fossil deposit and through cooperative ventures with research and educational institutions from around the world, we are well into understanding the ancient lake system and its paleoecology (the relationship between ancient life and their environments).
From recovered specimens, we can peer back into time when very different creatures lived on this part of the slowly moving continental plate. That movement is approximately 1/2 inch per year to the northwest, about the same as one’s fingernails grow in a year.
The Earth had undergone an immense upheaval some 6 to 9 million years before the onset of the lake system, which eventually created Fossilstone™
Earth had been impacted by an immense asteroid 2500 miles south of this region, and within days the planet was engulfed in a cloud of dust, debris, soot, smoke and other particulates. The Sun was quickly blotted out and the dominant life forms that had lived on the planet in an evolving, though somewhat stable, ecosystem were suddenly, largely annihilated. No fossilized creature over about 100 pounds has been found in the million years after the event. Plants of almost all species became extinct, along with most of the vertebrates, and sea dwellers.
However, as happened with several previous major Earth life extinctions, the organisms that were able to survive found an immense opportunity.
The land, water, and air were all but devoid of the giant predators and prey types, providing opportunity and exploitation for the hardy furred mammals and other small survivors.
On the shores of the lake, lemur like primates began the long evolutionary journey to humans. Primates whose eyes were on the front of the skull had better depth perception, got more food, and reproduced. They went off into the future, and we humans now look back on the ancestral lakes, viewed as a stone book a portion of our initial history.
The lake we call Fossil Lake, thrived in a geologically created basin much like a 100-mile long 60-mile wide bathtub. The water rose and fell, changed in mineral content, and went through drought and torrential floods over the five million years of its existence. As sediments filled in the lake, the basin sank ever so slowly over time. Numerous times, volcanoes far away erupted and ash fell into the water. Through time, successive layers piled on top of the ash compressing it into varying thicknesses of fine glass-like layers; orange, white, and yellow in color.
The lake was constantly replenished with fresh water on the surface, which was crucial for life. Vast colonies of algae grew and algal blooms of immense size and depth became events. Smaller creatures found refuge and opportunity in the algae mats and flourished. Snails grazed in the upper reaches of the mats, but inevitably, some fell into the depths of the lake. Near the bottom of the lake most died immediately because, the water was oxygen poor and rich in minerals and gasses. Unlike temperate lakes we know here in the region today, the yearly cycle of water overturning in lakes did not occur. This is because the temperatures did not vary much from hot summer to cooler winter.
The result of the lack of moving water was that the ancient lake was stratified almost permanently. It was stratified chemically (chemoclines) and thermally (thermoclines).These stratified layers set the opportunity for fossilization, which is unparalleled on the planet.
Fish lived and died on a daily basis for the some five million years of Fossil Lake’s life. Occasionally there were mass deaths, but more often the fish would swim into a lower zone while escaping a predator or searching for prey, becoming incapacitated by the chemicals or water quality locked in that zone. Some choked on fish too large to swallow while disease, old age, and still other reasons undefined brought creatures to the bottom. The fish would die, and trapped by the depths, sink slowly to the bottom ooze. Anaerobic bacteria (not needing oxygen) found the ooze a good home and opportunity for colonization. Dead fish were a constant food source for the bacteria, but they could not keep up with the steady rain of material falling and burying the refuse.
Meanwhile, above in the warmer algae beds, constant pulses of nutrients from the large rivers and winds created a massive matrix-making organism. For five million years this process piled up enough waste-matter and bodies of glass to create three hundred feet of finely laminated stone. These millions of layers of deposits are the result of a vast interplay between organisms seeking opportunity and environments providing resources.
After about five million years of relative stability, the basin filled up-climatic conditions changed. What is now south-western Wyoming had moved some 300 miles northwest since the asteroid strike and the subsequent major extinctions.
An even more important geological event was surging beneath the Rocky Mountain Region. Over the next few million years the region was uplifted to its present elevation by magma movements deep beneath the surface.
The upward motion of the superheated magma caused the surface to rise dramatically. The process encouraged erosion and sub-sequently, more deposition. Vast, deep deposits were created over the lakes.
As the climate dried and cooled, many glaciations piled thousands of feet of ice in the basins. Deep within the ground the buried lake sediments began the millions of year long process of conversion from one thing into another. The mud compacted, and in so doing expelled water and created heat through the friction and pressure of compaction. The heat and pressure lithified the matrix and turned it into stone. Spectacular layers of stone are now a part of the formation that was created by the ancient lake.